Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29098

Hints and tips by Mr K

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BD Rating - Difficulty **** - Enjoyment ****

Hello everyone, and welcome to Tuesday. Today we have a very enjoyable puzzle that feels a lot like the work of Telegraph crossword editor Chris Lancaster. Additional evidence for that attribution is the appearance of 9a, which won the clue writing competition in the February Puzzles Site newsletter - congratulations to Michael Lloyd-Jones for that accomplishment.

In the hints below most indicators are italicized and definitions are underlined. Clicking on the answer buttons will reveal the answers. In some hints hyperlinks provide additional explanation or background. Clicking on a picture might enlarge it or display a bonus illustration. Please leave a comment telling us how you got on.

Across

1aTake heed of pupil's request to English teacher? (4,2,5) MARK MY WORDS: The answer could, taken literally, be a pupil’s request for a teacher to provide feedback on their prose

9aOne oversensitive bit of skin on end of chin -- it hurts shaving (9) SNOWFLAKE: Concatenate the initial letter of (bit of) Skin, the last letter of (end of) chiN, a short word said in response to pain, and a shaving of something (chocolate, perhaps)

10aWaitinggame? (5) READY: A double definition. Waiting to leave, for example, and game or willing

11aAttack in trouble after a case of shingles (6) ASSAIL: Trouble or afflict goes after both A from the clue and the outer letters of (case of) ShingleS

12a Rhapsody might follow this unconventional type (8) BOHEMIAN: The answer followed by “Rhapsody” is a well-known song (and recent movie)

13a Top politician served superbly, backing Leave (6) DECAMP: Follow the abbreviation for the leader of the governing political party with served superbly at Wimbledon, for example, and then reverse the lot (… backing)

15aSmall, like a beer (4-4) PINT-SIZE: A description of a serving of beer

18a Lion and swan fighting for one result of match? (3-2-3) SON-IN-LAW: An anagram (fighting) of LION SWAN

21a Some object, nag or rant about being conceited (8) ARROGANT: The answer is hiding as some of the reversal (… about) of the remainder of the clue

23aSuperhuman born Greek (6) BIONIC: Put together the genealogical abbreviation for born and an adjective synonym of Greek

26a About to leave Jersey's capital (5) TUNIS: The capitalisation of Jersey is just for misdirection. Delete the single-letter Latin abbreviation for about or roughly from a jersey or top with its S from the clue

27a Observe a Liberal meeting former president's twin (9) LOOKALIKE: Assemble observe or watch, A from the clue, the single-letter abbreviation for Liberal, and the nickname of 1950s American president Eisenhower

28aOff-limits, like a tired jumper? (3,2,6) OUT OF BOUNDS: Taken literally, the answer could describe the state of a jumper who is too tired to jump

Down

1dOfficer on board that's keen, apparently (7) MUSTARD: The name of a character in a murder mystery board game is also a word informally associated with being keen or enthusiastic

3d Miss chap welcoming trendy baker from Drury Lane (6,3) MUFFIN MAN: Find a character in a children’s song from miss or bungle and a chap or bloke who are sandwiching (welcoming) a usual word for trendy or fashionable

4dHit with something meaty (4) WHAM: The single letter for “with” followed by the thigh part of an animal

5d Question type ignoring a student's eloquence (8) RHETORIC: A type of question that does not expect an answer minus (ignoring) both A from the clue and the usual student or learner

6d Operator rejects working in rush (5) SURGE: A medical “operator” loses (rejects) working or running

7d The old having turned up, head outside to find pop singer (7) BEYONCE: An old word for “the” is reversed (turned up) and has an informal word for one’s head wrapped around it (head outside). Click here for more on the singer

8d Mr Fawlty and I regularly chat in church (8) BASILICA: The first name of the owner of Fawlty Towers is followed by I from the clue and alternate letters (regularly) of CHAT

14d Tory with nerve for challenge (8) CONFRONT: An abbreviation for Conservative (Tory) with nerve or boldness

16d Kid at home disrupted work on stage (3,6) THE MIKADO: An anagram (disrupted) of KID AT HOME

17d Relative allowed to hold up golf glove (8) GAUNTLET: A female relative and allowed or permitted both follow (to hold up, in a down clue) the letter represented by golf in the NATO phonetic alphabet

I’m sorry and I appreciate all the hard work in redesigning the website layout but for me (and it’s not just BD’s site) I find this gadarene rush for filling pages with white space an absolute anathema.

I have a 27″ screen. I might as well cover the 12″ on the right and 4′” on the left with brown paper.

Hi, Roger. As BD said in the post currently at the top of the homepage, the current theme is a stopgap until a few issues encountered using the usual theme with the new site build are sorted out. I expect that the old and more efficient theme will be back once BD has caught up on sleep and had time to work on it more.

I do hope so, Mr K, much preferred the original layout and that badly pixelated pic of BD’s home turf is enough to turn one cross-eyed!
By the way – I appreciate that we have to endure adverts to finance the site but that wretched one that appears at the bottom of every page asking me whether I want to open or save sp.js from tag.sp.advertising.com is driving me mad. No matter how many times I press ‘cancel’ it pops back up again – grr!

Thanks, Mr K. I’ve just tried Steve’s suggestion and it seems to have worked.
Love the way you assume that I would have the faintest idea of how to ‘clear my browser cache’ – Kitty will assure you that I don’t. Even ‘copy and paste’ is well outside of my abilities!

I thought that this was most enjoyable (and somewhat trickier than we usually get on Tuesdays). Thanks to our esteemed editor and Mr K for the review.
My top clues were 19a, 28a and 1d (I bet that one will be Senf’s favourite!).
I wasn’t keen on 5d where I thought there was a considerable overlap between the definition and the wordplay.

Well, 1d made the short list but lost out to 28a. I have fond memories of the military gentleman being used as a nickname for me by the aircraft technicians and mechanics when I was working in Wichita Kansas. I like to think it was a term of endearment especially when compared to how others from the Engineering Group were referred to.

I found this puzzle to be quite difficult , especially the NW corner and a ****/*** for me . Last in was 1d which I liked.
also 28a amused as did 12a
No idea what Drury Lane had to do with the 3d solution.
Thanks all for the struggle.

Took me a while to get some of these and again to work out why some were right. I blame the toddler and my lack of sleep.
Did anyone else hear yesterday’s The Archers? Lilian shares her discovery that in crosswords “about” means you’re looking for an anagram. Who’s going to write in and tell The Ed/Lilian all the other things it might signify?!

I found the top half of this puzzle rather difficult to unravel, which took me into *** time. I don’t particularly enjoy clues based on popular entertainment and this reduced the enjoyment somewhat to **. Younger folk must find clues relating to vintage entertainers of the last century particularly difficult. Favourite clues were 1d,17d and 24d. Thanks to Mr K and the setter.

I agree with you LBR, there’s nothing more off putting to a solver than a reference to say a singer popular before the solver was born. If we’re to persuade younger people of the delights of a cryptic crossword it should be, in the main, fresh and contemporary. Older solvers (and I’m no spring chicken) do live in the present too.

Stephen, as somebody newish at attempting to solve crosswords, I agree to some extent, but I think that the level of fame matters as much as the time period. There are plenty of musicians who had Beyoncé levels of fame before I was born which people of any age are likely to have heard of: Elvis Presley, Vera Lynn, Joni Mitchell, Buddy Holly, Karen Carpenter, Bob Dylan, …

And sometimes it’s fun to learn things from crosswords: I hadn’t heard of Veronica Lake or her co-star until this Toughie earlier this year, but that 29a is one of my favourite clues ever.

Personally I find names of wines/wine regions more off-putting, because I never know them and it doesn’t seem like learning them adds anything of value to my life, in the way that being introduced to a new musician or author might. (Talking of which, has everybody who encountered Getafix for the first time in a Toughie a couple of weeks ago got an Asterix book out of their library yet?)

Off-puttingest of all for me are those abbreviations for artists, sailors, and the like which are never encountered in Real Life, so we basically just have to learn them for crosswords, and there’s no way of working them out if you haven’t been told. It seems as arbitrary as if somebody’s just decreed that if a clue makes a reference to zookeepers that means you need to write ‘da’ in the answer.

Whereas with a famous person I haven’t heard of, I can at least appreciate that there are other solvers who have, and that it might be worth my getting to know them.

Like Beaver I ended up stuck in the NW corner, despite the Fawlty clue there being my first answer. The pop singer was my last one in, incredibly. I think I was expecting someone I hadn’t heard of.
Fitful progress throughout, but in hindsight it was a perfectly fair mix of a handful of gimmes and some ingenious brain-stretchers.
Favourite clue, 13a for such a neat surface.
Thanks to Mr K and the editor/setter.

Thank you. After the thesaurus told me shaving was a synonym of flake, I got lucky with the s n and ow!
I’ve noticed your clues getting singled out for praise recently. Can you still be Mysterious if you win?

That’s an interesting question. When we did the survey on setter anonymity recently, Chris said that the current arrangement will continue because there are some setters who want to be anonymous or to hide behind pseudonyms. So if they can be mysterious, why can’t entrants in the clue-writing competition?

Struggled a bit today, especially in the top half. Why is it that you struggle with a clue and when you work it out, wonder why you struggled. There must be a term for this. If not, can we invent one? 28a favourite. Ta to all.

7. Treppenwitz (Staircase joke)
Have you ever noticed how when you have a chance encounter with an attractive person of the opposite sex or get into an argument with someone, the best jokes, lines, and comebacks always occur to you afterwards? That’s the so-called Treppenwitz. It’s the joke that comes to your mind on the way down the stairs after talking to your neighbor in the hallway two floors up.

Firstly, I feel it is important to say how much I have missed you, BD! Congratulations on getting this wonderful site back up and running. I know that I don’t feel able to contribute very often,but I look nearly every day to see whether I have got it right and what others have to say about the daily challenge.
Today’s was a tricky little so-and-so and I needed your help parsing 1d,3d,9a &26a, but otherwise a good workout & most enjoyable.
Many thanks to the setter(CL if it is ) and Mr K for the hints.

Wow I thought this was a high class offering, very topical, all in all the work of someone at the top of his/her game. My main problem was parsing a few but I’m going to leave that ’til later when I have more time..(I’ll thank Mr K in advance for his help in that department) but 1d completely eluded me. I also needed a tiny hint for 7d. My first one in was 12a and I thought at the time we’re sure to get a clip of that!!
Favourites in a strong field were 1a, 6d and top spot to the “ace” 13a…setter even got in a touch of Wimbledon! 4*/4*
Thanks to the setter and to Mr K for their excellent works.

Lovely puzzle – just the synonym in 26a that I was reluctant to accept.
Only discovered that meaning of 9a recently – courtesy of a crossword, no doubt – and have to confess to initially having the wrong but very similar answer for 15a.

Hard to isolate a favourite but I’ve narrowed it down to either 13 or 28a.

Thanks to Mr Ed and to Mr K for the blog. The Beyoncé clip reminded me of the brilliant rendition by the BBC lady newscasters – possibly for Children in Need?

Enjoyed this puzzle but needed help to parse 5 bung ins.
Have missed this site so felt obliged to comment on how useful it is. Its an object lesson in clarity as far as I’m concerned and I don’t seem to get any adverts on my PC. Try using Duck Duck and Go as your search engine.
Thanks to Mr K and Setter, although I did not appreciate the beyonce clip. Lets hope Johanna Konta is in a future crossword.

Thanks to setter and Mr K. It’s so good to get the blog back so many thanks to Big Dave too. On the subject of knowing who the setter is I have no opinion as the puzzles come in two types. One I can do or do with electronic help and those that are so difficult I need the blog.

Thank you, setter and Mr K — I really enjoyed that! Unlikely seemingly everybody else, I filled in the top-half first, and did way better than typically for me, only requiring 2 of Mr K’s wonderful hints.

So many fun clues here (1a, 1d, 8d, and 28a among others). My favourite is 4d, for pure silliness.

And the ‘Eddie’ notice on 19a is a great find — worth clicking on the picture and reading the notice, if you haven’t already.

Phew…I thought it was Tuesday today! I had to work to complete this crossword. Admittedly putting ‘half pint’ in for 15a was perhaps not the best way to begin.
However I got there with 7d being my final entry.
9a was my favourite.
Thanks to CL(?), and to Mr K for the review and pics.

I also started out with half-pint. I’m wondering now if I should have given this 4* for difficulty, since even crypticsue found it a challenge. Being jetlagged made it hard to tell if it was me or the puzzle that was responsible for a slowish solve.

Another day when the Toughie was easier. I needed help with the parsing of several clues. Being topical and usually linked to “generation “, I got 9a at once but needed Mr K to tell me why.
Loved the illustration to 27a. Where would we be without Mr T!
I like the new layout. It’s clean and spacious. Just right for my I-pad.

Doable but unexceptional with NW surrendering first. Not sure where a jersey comes into 26a and not keen on 5d. Parsing of 1d bung-in meant nothing to me. Favs 28a and 13a which came easily to mind as continue to be glued to Wimbledon. Thank you Ed and MrK.

Found this quite tricky ****/*** 😬 Favourites 1 @ 28a 😃 Thanks to Mr K and to the Setter. Thanks to all involved in getting the blog back and running 👍 You don’t realise how much you miss some thing until it is gone 😳

New site looks good on a iPad! Whatever it’s just good to have the blog back, well done BD!
This one took 2 sittings and a fair bit of head scratching but got there in the end. Bit too cryptic for me to be totally enjoyable but satisfying to complete.
Thx to all
***/**

I agree with those who thought this was very enjoyable and much trickier than is usual on a Tuesday.
I’m glad that I wasn’t the only twit who started off with ‘half pint’ for 15a and ‘chop’ for 4d.
26a took for ever and I was very slow to sort out the 18d anagram for no good reason.
Clues that stood out for me today were 9 and 12a and 8 and 25d.
With thanks to the setter and to Mr K.

Enjoyable puzzle I solved with Mama Bee as we were stuck in traffic on the way to the Great Yorkshire Show.
Half pint was my first thought too but Mama Bee went straight in with the right answer. Just got home with a belly full of fish and chips and a load of sausages pies and posh cheese. 3d was helped by the fact it was used in one of the recent war films I saw. I think it was the one about Douglas Bader and was sung by his squadron in the bar. I hope Lee in MN and others abroad got the obscure Scottish town.
Thanks to Mr K and Mr Ed.

Don’t think my brain was in gear today! I found today’s offering quite challenging. When that happens I put it down and forget it. Usually, when I go back after an hour or so, things start to gel. They did in this case and I really enjoyed the clues. Apart, that is from 26a, which still foxes me.

A Tuesday wake me up that was a puzzle of two halves. South was a good steady solve whilst North virtually stopped me in my tracks: I have to be honest I resorted a lot to assistance from MrK, but got there eventually.
4*/4* an excellent puzzle that was just over my pay grade.
Thanks to CL & MrK for direction.

We also found this trickier than normal and very enjoyable. Not surprisingly we had never heard of the Scottish town of fewer than 10,000 people but gettable from checkers, wordplay and a Google check. Our last in was the contest winning 9a.
Thanks Chris and Mr K.

Definitely a curates egg for me. I enjoyed the half I could do, and frustrated with the half I couldn’t. 1a was my favourite. Thanks to setter and Mr K. Loving this clear and easy to read version of the blog,

Found this the hardest for a long time. Usual trick of sleeping on it did not work. Several in the NW unsolved not helped by the chop I had in at 4d. Also share the concern about the jersey/tunic synonym. Numerous possible answers for 2d made it impossible for me to get 1a which, on reflection, is a good clue. Would not have got 1d in a million years. Just goes to show it takes all sorts…. Thanks setter for stretching my brain to breaking point and to Mr K for the explanations. Don’t usually attempt the Toughie but recently did one in about a tenth of the time this one took!

I went out yesterday before this review was published so haven’t been able to comment until now.
I echo the sentiment that it is brilliant to see the blog back up and running. We can all breath again now that we can get our essential daily dose of the wonderful BD blog!
I’d also like to add that I view age very much as a state of mind, and the older I get the more I tell myself that is the case.
I found this Tuesday puzzle very tough but well worth the effort.
Many thanks to CL for a great puzzle and to Mr K for a great review.

I think you should add yet another! A bit late in the (next) day to be commenting but I’m still only about two thirds of the way through this and I have spent absolutely ages struggling with it. I think I might have to give up, which I hardly ever do! Thanks to the setter – I’ve enjoyed the ones I could do – and to you, Mr K, for your hints, which I’m about to consult.

Hi, Sarah. You are certainly not alone in your assessment – the consensus seems to be that this was one of the trickiest Tuesday puzzles we’ve seen for quite a while. GK is required to solve some clues and if a solver doesn’t have that knowledge already stored away they are going to find the puzzle extra tough.